1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to a device for picking up loose articles on the ground, and specifically for retrieving balls scattered over a wide area such as a golf ball driving range.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
In the golf industry, it is desirable to utilize a device which can retrieve balls which are scattered over a wide area of ground, as would be found at a golf driving range. This avoids the costly and time consuming method of retrieving balls manually. Such a device should be efficient, reliable, and economical to operate.
The prior art discloses several inventions in this area. U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,370 to Gambiin (1975) discloses a device in which golf balls indiscriminately distributed over the surface of a driving range are retrieved by arcuate upward displacement into a receptacle, being retrieved by an arcuately discontinuous transfer means moving in entrained relation to pick up the ball.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,759 to Hollrock et al. (1976) shows a golf ball retriever having a picker roll having a plurality of thin discs spaced one from the other along a common central axis by a uniform spacing slightly less than the diameter of a golf ball. The picker roll is readily removable from a supporting frame and, after such removal, the discs making up the roll may be successively disassembled from either end thereof to reach and remove a damaged or broken disc when repairing the roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,141 to Ryan (1979) shows an open bottomed wheeled carriage having upstanding side plates between which a flexible mat is dragged over the ground. The front end only of the mat is secured to a cross bar on the carriage at a height greater than the height of a golf ball on the ground. The mat is made up of pivotally joined rings, links or parallel chains so that balls on the ground over which the mat is pulled will pass upwardly through the rings, between the links or chains to the upper surface of the mat. A cleated endless belt, driven by the carriage supporting ground wheels, sweeps the balls rearwardly over the mat into a container on the rear of the carriage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,148 to Hayashi (1979) discloses an improved golf ball collector, which comprises a plurality of ball catching wheels on a common axle which wheels are parallel with and spaced from each other so that the distance between two adjacent wheels is slightly smaller than the diameter of golf balls. In front of each of the wheels is arranged one disk wheel which is aligned therewith and which is slightly elevated off the ground and is rotated in the reverse direction relative to the direction of rotation of the ball catching wheels. Means is provided to deliver balls from the ball catching wheels to a container.
Each of these devices disclosed in the prior art, however, suffers from certain shortcomings. Some are of complicated design, and therefore more difficult and expensive to build and maintain, and less reliable to operate. Some are inefficient in that the devices can be operated only at relatively slow speeds, or the width of the swath of ground covered with each pass is restricted to the width of the ball collecting mechanism. Moreover, some devices fail to collect a very high percentage of the balls covered, thus requiring multiple passes over the same ground, and thereby further diminishing efficiency. If the ground is soft, some devices may press below ground level the balls which are not collected, making the balls difficult to collect later manually, or causing the balls to be lost altogether. Lastly, the devices disclosed in the prior art are not flexible, that is each device uses the same means for all terrains and all conditions.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved device for retrieving balls which is simple in design and reliable in operation.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved device for retrieving balls which is inexpensive to operate and maintain.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved device for retrieving balls which provides more efficient operation through higher speeds, a wider swath, and an increased percentage of balls retrieved.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved device for retrieving balls which is flexible, in that the device can be adapted for different terrain and ground conditions.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed as being merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the invention. Accordingly other objects in a full understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention, the detailed description describing the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.